AN AIR of recuperative calm that patients in most metropolitan NHS hospitals only dream of belies the pressures at one of the country’s most highly rated hospitals.

Shiny new buildings and corridors lined with modern art apparently do little to ease the stress under which staff at Dorset County Hospital claim they are forced to work.

Now the NHS trust that administers the hospital in Dorchester has been warned that it faces fines unless it reduces work-related stress.

The “improvement order”, the first of its kind issued against any big employer in Britain, followed a written complaint from a former employee that led to an investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

After a series of visits and interviews the HSE inspectors concluded that working practices at the hospital constituted a health risk and gave the trust until December 15 to changes or face legal action.

The £45 million hospital, which opened in 1998, has one of the finest art collections in the South West. It was awarded the maximum three stars by the Commission for Health Improvement and has virtually nonexistent waiting lists.

But last week, 57 medical secretaries, members of the Unison trade union, threatened to walk out after the trust refused to increase their pay scales in line with national guidelines.

Their protest followed complaints by 28 speech therapists that their service was “stretched to breaking point” by a shortage of staff.

Details of the complaint that led to the investigation are being kept confidential but one member of clerical staff at the hospital said yesterday: “Conditions at the hospital at the moment are absolutely dreadful. I am working 12-hour days and have no choice about it because of the levels of work and because it is for the patients.

“When the medical secretaries complained over their level of work they were summoned for a meeting with human resources. A personnel manager told them, ‘For every one of you here that walks out there are another three people outside willing to take your job’.”

The hospital, which employs 1,108 staff, serves an affluent area. David Lancspear, one of four general managers, said: “It’s news to me and other members of staff I’ve spoken to. I don’t think staff here are more stressed than at any other NHS hospital.

“The only particular pressure we have is the ageing population we serve so although it’s not a high population density area we do get a lot of demand for our services.”

Counting cost in the workplace

Workers in large public sector organisations are absent for 12.9 days a year, a third higher than staff absences in the private sector

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